YOU CAN DO IT: Bone Broth Chicken Quinoa Soup

This is a sponsored post paid for by Green Quinoa, but you know how I LOVE quinoa – and the recipe, thoughts, and opinions are all my own. Connect with Green Quinoa on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

I’m a big believer that a mom has two best friends in the kitchen: quinoa and a rotisserie chicken. If you have one, or the other, you’re minutes away from a powerhouse meal. Now, if you have BOTH on hand, you’re really set up for greatness.

Today I want to do two things:
1) Introduce you to 100% Bolivian quinoa brand – Green Quinoa. All their products are made from 100% organic Bolivian quinoa (aka “Royal Quinoa”) – and BOLIVIAN ROYAL QUINOA is the best quinoa in the world. It’s the largest, fluffiest, nuttiest tasting, and most nutritious variety… PLUS, since Green Quinoa traces their quinoa batches from farm to shelf, you can be confident it’s clean (meaning you don’t have to rinse it) and free of pesticides and contaminants.

2) Show you how to get another meal out of a rotisserie chicken you may think has nothing left to offer. When I buy a rotisserie chicken, I typically debone the breasts and thighs and use that for dinner #1. What you may not know, however, is that with just a little more effort and a few additional ingredients, you can turn that almost fully deboned chicken into bone broth chicken quinoa soup… and, if you’re not familiar with bone broth, know this: it’s amazingly healthy.

PROCESS:
Add 10 cups of water to a stock pot with the apple cider vinegar. Then, remove as much skin as you can from the chicken and place the entire chicken into the pot of water. (NOTE: be sure you add in all the gelatinous goodness that settles in the bottom of the rotisserie chicken tray and collects around the chicken skin you’re discarding. It’s full of flavor and nutrients that were cooked out of the chicken on the first cook – so, use it!)

Bring the bones to a rapid boil, then turn down heat, cover, and simmer for about an hour on medium heat. (While the bones simmer, this is where you can get another load of laundry in, help with homework, and prep your soup ingredients. 🙂 )

While the soup is boiling, prep the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and parsley (the parsley didn’t make it into my picture):

…dicing them all up like this:

Once your bones are boiled down, they should literally fall apart as you go to remove them from the water. So, using a slotted spoon, remove the bones from the pot and onto a plate.

What will be left in the pot is this golden goodness – your bone broth:

Using a pair of tongs, or a fork, or even your fingers, remove all the chicken you can from the bones. You’ll be shocked at how much meat was still left! Look at mine – when making the soup for this post I was able to get close to two full cups of beautiful chicken off my bones:

At this point you can toss the bones in the trash, put all your veggies and the chicken back into the pot…and, this is where the quinoa comes in:

One box of GQ mixed grain quinoa is about 2 cups of dry. I wanted a thick soup, so I added the whole box of dry grain into the pot. (If you want your soup less thick, add less dry quinoa.)

Add your sea salt, black pepper, and soy sauce. Bring the soup to a rapid boil reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 15-18 minutes – just long enough for the quinoa to cook.

When the soup is done, this is what you’ll have:

Isn’t it amazing how leftover bones you’d probably be tempted to throw away have the potential to become this stunningly beautiful, flavorful, and healthy bone broth chicken quinoa soup?

My man goes nuts for this soup, as do my kids. They always tell me it’s just like something from the Whole Foods soup bar – but even better… and, it’s true.

With Fall upon us, I hope you’ll remember this simple recipe and give it a try… and then come back and tell me about it!